Scan barcode
A review by daja57
Ben, in the World by Doris Lessing
5.0
The sequel to The Fifth Child.
Ben is a freak, a genetic throwback, a Neanderthal. When he was born into a 'perfect family' in England, the arrival of this weird, often violent little boy ("a controlled explosion of furious needs, hungers and frustrations") alienated and frightened his family and drove them apart. His childhood signified the destruction of the relationships of all those around him. He ended up truanting from school and running away from home, seemingly destined to a life of crime.
But this book is mostly from Ben's perspective. Rather than being afraid of Ben's innate violence, we understand that he is alone and terrified. He is a wild man who doesn't understand human society and certainly doesn't fit in. He is exploited by a variety of men and consoled by a number of women. In this book, the reader learns to empathise with the bogeyman.
Lessing understands what people mean when they talk to one another, and what they mean when they communicate without words, through tone of voice, posture and the way they look at one another. She understands each of the characters in this story and her writing is so good that the reader is made to understand them too.
The story is narrated from a distance and using multiple third-person perspectives; the plot is driven by the characters and the ending is psychologically inevitable but still gripping.
As a sequel it is very different from the first book but it is utterly complementary in those differences so that the two books make a tragic but coherent whole.
Ben is a freak, a genetic throwback, a Neanderthal. When he was born into a 'perfect family' in England, the arrival of this weird, often violent little boy ("a controlled explosion of furious needs, hungers and frustrations") alienated and frightened his family and drove them apart. His childhood signified the destruction of the relationships of all those around him. He ended up truanting from school and running away from home, seemingly destined to a life of crime.
But this book is mostly from Ben's perspective. Rather than being afraid of Ben's innate violence, we understand that he is alone and terrified. He is a wild man who doesn't understand human society and certainly doesn't fit in. He is exploited by a variety of men and consoled by a number of women. In this book, the reader learns to empathise with the bogeyman.
Lessing understands what people mean when they talk to one another, and what they mean when they communicate without words, through tone of voice, posture and the way they look at one another. She understands each of the characters in this story and her writing is so good that the reader is made to understand them too.
The story is narrated from a distance and using multiple third-person perspectives; the plot is driven by the characters and the ending is psychologically inevitable but still gripping.
As a sequel it is very different from the first book but it is utterly complementary in those differences so that the two books make a tragic but coherent whole.